KANSAS CITY, Kan. – While running third in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, Kyle Larson ran into early trouble in Stage 1 when his engine began to lose power underneath his No. 42 Credit One Chevrolet throwing a wrench into his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff hopes.
Larson slowed on the backstretch of the 1.5-mile speedway and came to pit road on Lap 65 of 267 where his Chip Ganassi Racing crew raised the hood in an attempt to diagnose the issue for Larson’s Chevrolet.
After falling out of the top-10, he returned to the race in 37th, three laps down with a sour-sounding engine.
While still attempting to further diagnose the engine miss, Larson’s car went up in a trail of smoke and fluid 11 laps later on the frontstretch, but he was able to limp himself back to the garage.
Larson entered the cut-off race at Kansas third in the Playoff standings, the highest-ranking driver without a win – which would have awarded him an automatic berth in the next round of the Playoffs.
“I felt it drop a cylinder or something. So, it’s disappointing way to finish our race and probably our season, but we’ll be all right,” said Larson in the garage.
“I hate that we blew an engine and probably blew our shot at the championship, but luck is a big factor of our sport.”
His early race issue dropped him outside the eighth-place cutoff in Sunday’s Round of 12 finale, where four drivers will be eliminated from championship contention at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway next month.
At the end of Stage 1, won by Kyle Busch, Larson was already below the cutoff line in 10th without earning any crucial stage points.
While knowing that his championship hopes may have been prematurely ended with the blown engine, Larson said he would be clinging to hope that he would make it through the next round.
“Obviously I’m going to watch (the rest of the race) and just cross my fingers and pray to anything I can pray to. But, I don’t think 29 points is enough,” added Larson. “So, it’s disappointing, but we’ve had a good year. I’ve got to thank Credit One Bank and Target and everybody that’s been involved. It sucks to have the engine failure, but it is what it is.”
It didn’t happen, however, as Larson was eliminated from the event despite Playoff contenders Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth experiencing hardship during the 267-lap race.
Larson was credited with a 39th place finish, his worst finish of the season. In the standings, he fell six positions — from third to ninth overall and ended nine points behind Johnson for the last transfer spot.
On Lap 95, NASCAR officially scored Larson out of the race with his first engine failure in his career driving the No. 42 Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates in 141 Cup starts.
“Things happen. You look at the past playoffs and the No. 78 (Martin Truex, Jr.) had an engine issue last year and he was the best car all year; and then us, this year,” sounded Larson. “So, it’s disappointing. But there’s still a long race left to go and maybe we can get lucky.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
